Big rail grant hits haulage
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• Haulers working out of Royal Portbury Dock near Bristol face a significant loss of work after the government announced the award of the largest ever rail freight grant to its owners, the Bristol Port Co.
The award of £15.6m, plus an additional £6m of private funding, will be used to refur
bish a large section of the disused Portishead branch line and provide a rail link into the docks. it will also help to establish a general cargo terminal and a coal terminal—early indications show the link will remove around a million HGV movements each year.
Announcing the grant, Transport Minister Lord Macdonald said: "Investment in schemes like this wit help to achieve our aim of an 80% growth in rail freight over the next decade. We have provided approaching E10Om in grants to move freight from road to rail or inland waterways and will make yet more available if there is demand. The money is there; it is up to the transport industry to come forward with schemes."
In July this year the government announced a 10year, £180bn investment programme of public and private cash. The project is designed to reduce the amount of lorry traffic by a billion vehicle kilometres by 20111